Human Rights Association (Turkey)

The Human Rights Association (HRA; _tr. İnsan Hakları Derneği İHD) is a Turkish human rights association, founded in 1986 and headquartered in Ankara.

History

The HRA was founded on July 17, 1986 by 98 people, comprising lawyers, journalists, intellectuals, but mainly relatives of political prisoners. The Human Rights Association works on all kind of human rights, but is mainly focused on abuses in Turkey. In 1992 the statute was changed to cover humanitarian aspects as laid out in the Geneva Conventions. [Daily "Özgür Ülke" of 7 November 1994 Verify source|date=August 2008] Since then the HRA has also criticized human violations of armed groups.

Structure and campaigns

Official figures of the HRA claim 16,000 members, in 34 branches in 81 provinces of Turkey. The 24 board members are elected for terms of two years on the association's general assembly. The headquarters in Ankara as well as many branches (in particular the branches in Istanbul and Diyarbakir) are running commissions according to the need. The commission cover subjects such as the Kurdish question, women, children, prisons and torture.

Some of the large number of campaigns of the HRA were: freedom of expression (2001), general amnesty (1999) , abolition of the death penalty (abolished in 2002-2004), abolition of the state security courts (1997). In 2004 a project called "Don't remain silent against torture" (" _tr. İşkenceye Sessiz Kalma") was started.

Persecution

Since its foundation the HRA has been facing state intervention into its work, but also direct violence of individuals or nationalist groups. HRA website claims 400 court cases against executives of the association; the governors of some provinces ordered the closure of branches 30 times; the chairman of the branch in Diyarbakir that stayed close between 1997 and 2000, Osman Baydemir, had to face 60 investigative or penal cases against him in one year; in 2000 the branch in Izmir had the same number of cases initiated against it; because of speeches in 1995 and 1996 the then president of the HRA, Akın Birdal, was sentenced to 20 months' imprisonment, of which he served 14 months.

Furthermore, the HRA lists 14 members who were killed. On May 12, 1998, Akın Birdal barely survived an assassination attempt, when two assailants fired 13 shots at him in the office of the association. On November 25, 1999 a group of 30 to 35 persons close to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) stormed into the office and beat the new President Hüsnü Öndül. Repeatedly Amnesty International issued urgent actions to draw attention and prevent threats against human rights activists of the HRA, e.g. for Eren Keskin, chairman of the branch in Istanbul. [cite web|url=http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EUR44/051/2002/en
accessdate=2008-08-15
title=Turkey: Eren Keskin - prosecuted for her activities as a human rights defender
publisher=Amnesty International
date=2002-09-05]

See also

* Human Rights Foundation of Turkey

References

External links

* [http://www.ihd.org.tr/english/index.php Human Rights Association]